Pharma disclosure: Are new Web sites transparent enough?

Fri, 2010-04-16 20:41

Pfizer may be the most recent, but it's in good company as more pharma companies --GSK, Lilly, Merck -- begin to post on the Web what they have paid to physician consultants and speakers. While some are being forced to do it as part of their settlements over illegal marketing activities, others are just being proactive: The healthcare reform law that passed last month requires all pharma and medical device companies to set up these databases in 2013.

So, is this enough transparency? Seemingly not, according to this article in the New York Times, which says: "But it can be hard to add up the money for one doctor from several sources, identify the biggest recipients or list them all for a hospital or a city, without laborious work by a computer expert."